Removable upholstery for automobile doors



Aug. 28, 1928. 1,681,941

J. LEDWlNKA REMOVABLE UPHOLSTERY FOR AUTOMOBILE DOORS Filed Feb. 13, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TOR.

JOSEPH LEDWINKA WTTORNEi 45 ZSheets-Sheefi 2 R O m m N 1 FIG. 5

A TTORNE 1. LEDWINKA I REMOVABLE UPHOLSTERY FOR AUTOMOBILE DOORS Filed Feb. 13, 1925 Aug. 28, 1928.

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Patented Aug. 28, 1928.

UITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH LEID'WINKA, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO ED'W, G, RUDD MANUFAC'IJURING COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A (JOB- PORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

REMOVABLE 'ULPEOLS'I'ERY FOR AUTOMOBILE DOORS.

Application filed February This invention relates to removable upholstery in general, and, in particular, to the method of applying it to the doors of automobile bodies or other vehicles.

It is an object of my invention to provide an upholstery attaching means which is concealed from view when the upholstery unit is in place.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a detachable upholstery unit which may be readily and quickly removed from the door of the vehicle for any purpose.

A still further object is to provide an upholstery unit which may be readily and easily applied to the door without the use oit' any tools, and which, when so applied, presents a neat and smooth appearance.

Other objects are to reduce the great num ber of fastening devices heretofore necessary to a few only, to correspondingly reduce the number of manipulations necessary to apply the upholstery, and to make use of the concavity of the door in furtherance of these ends. Much economy both in fabrication and application is thereby efiected.

My invention consists in the novel construction, combination and devices to be hereinafter described and claimed for carrying out the above stated objects, and other such objects as will appear from the following description or a preferred embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. l is an inside view of an automobile door with my detachable unit in place;

. Fi 2 is a vertical cross-section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

S is an enlarged sectional view talren on the line 83 of 1;

Fig. l is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line l-- of Fig. l; and

Figs. 5, 6, and 7 show modifications of my detachable unit as applied to a sedan. door.

Heretofore, it has been the practice in applying; upholstery to the interior surfaces of vehicles, especially to the doors thereof, to secure the'upholstery unit in place in a nondetachable manner by the use or specially 'suriface in this case being, the 513?.--01

13, 1925. serial m. 8,902.

shaped rivets or by the use of screws. In

either case it has been necessary to provide a number of holes in the door body panels to accommodate the fastening devices and to fit the upholstery to the body, care being taken always to see that the holes provided in the upholstery unit are in exact alignment with the holes in the door panel. Such care has necessitated the employment of skilled labor in mounting the upholstery in place. Even with this care and skill, it has not been always possible to insure correct fitting of the upholstery unit without the need for drilline" additional holes in the body. Uphol tery which has been so applied is not easy to re- Inove and where rivets have been used as the fastening means, they must of necessity be destroyed before the upholstery may be removed. i

Also, due to the use of these specially designed fastening means tools of particular construction have had to be used which require in themselves more than ability and skill in handling.

is among the special purposes of my present invention to obviate the above objecjust ordinary tions and to provide a detachable upholstery i unit and securing means therefor whic only may be readily and conveniently an to the door of the vehicle, but which when so applied presents a neat, smooth and unrufied appearance to the eye. in ord accomplish these purposes l propose to e ploy an upholstery unit which, while mally of ilat, sheet-like format'sn, ma flexed to neatly engage a curved surfiace, as

con Because one of the automobile door.

we oi elasticity or resiliency the upholstery 1 tends to assume its normal when s flexed into engagement with 111; cu

face of the door, and make use 0 ency to interlock cooperating attach merits which are provided on both door and the unit whereby the latter is detachably secured to the former.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings, wherein similar reference numerals iniis tencldicate similar parts throughout the several views thereof, indicates the door to the inner surface of which the upholstery is to be applied. This door 10 essentially comprises an outer panel 11 and an inner panel 12 which are secured together at their tops and bottoms as is indicated at 13 and 14, respectively. While the outer panel 11 may be of any desired contour, the inner surface of the door 10 is preferably concaved, as is most clearly shown in Fig. 2. Both the inner panel 12 and the outer panel 11 are substantially of theusual construction, with the outer panel at its upper end overhanging the upper end of the inner panel at 15. j The central portion of the inner panel 12 is contoured to form a depression 16, the purpose of which will be more fully explained hereinafter.

Adjacent to the upper and lower edges of the inner surface of the door are provided sockets or openings designated 17 and 18, respectively. As is shown in Fig. 1, the upper edge of the door is provided with three such sockets while the lower edge is provided with two but it should be understood that any number of sockets may be provided either at the top or at the bottom. The upper sockets 17 are formed by providing slots in the lower portion 19 of the overhanging part of the outer panel. This is clearly shown in Fig. 3. The lower sockets 18 are formed in the inner panel 12 as shown in Fig. 1. These latter sockets are formed by first providin slits 20 at spaced intervals adjacent to the ower edge of inner panel and then pressing the material immediately above these slits inwardly as is indicated at 21. Upper and lower sockets or pockets 17 and 18, respectively, are thus provided in the inner surface of the doors for purposes to be more fully explained hereinafter.

The upholstery unit which is to be applied to the inner concaved surface of the door 10 comprises a normally flat sheet-like panel 22 of thin laminated wood or other flexible material. Secured to the inner surface of the panel at the upper edge thereof, preferably by tubular rivets, 25, are attaching elements such as clips or tabs 26 of smaller width than that of the sockets 17 and 18. A certain amount of play between the clips and their receiving sockets is thus provided for. The free outer ends 27 of these tabs project be yond the upper edge of the flexible panel 22 and are ofiset from the inner surface thereof.

These tabs 26 are provided at spaced intervals along the upper edge of the upholstery unit and are adapted to be received within the upper sockets 17 Secured to the inner lower Surface of the upholstery unit are tabs 28 at spaced intervals corresponding to the spacing of the lower sockets 18 which are provided for reception of these'tabs. The latter are preferably secured to the upholstery unit by tubular rivets 29 butany other suitable securearner ing means may be employed. The free outer ends 30 of the tabs 28 are also ofiset from the inner surface of the flexible panel 22 but, instead of projecting beyond the edge thereof as in the case of the upper tabs, lie within the lower periphery of the upholstery unit. Both the upper and lower sets of the securing rivets 25 and 29, respectively, have their outer ing the gap betweenthis upper edge and the overhanging portion of the outer panel 11.

Approximately in the upper half of the upholstery unit is provided an opening 31 which v is covered by the pocket flap 32 hingedly secured to the unit immediately above the opening. At the bottom of the depression 16 is provided a wooden or other element 88 so that upon applying the upholstery unit upon the door, a pocket is formed between it and the inner panel 12 which pocket is accessible through the covered opening 31.

In order to apply the upholstery unit to the door, ll make use of the concavity of the inner surface of the latter and the resiliency and flexibility of the former. Accordingly, the

normal straightline distance between the free "outer ends of the tabs 26 and 28 is made ly into the double curve shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2 whereupon the tabs 26 may be inserted within the upper sockets 17 A slight tap on the outwardly bulging intermediate portion of the upholstery unit forces the entire unit flush against the concaved surface of the door to firmly and snugly retain it in such position. When the panel 22 is flexed I inwardly against the inner concave surface of the door in the manner just described, it tends to return to its normal form so that in etlect the upper and lower edges thereof tend to lit) spread away from each other. This tendency to spread. is used to inter-lock the tabs 26 and 28 within the sockets 17 and 18, respectively,

At this point certain other features of my construction might well be mentioned. The

lower tabs 28 have portions which are angularly disposed with respect to the surface of the panel 22 to which they are secured. By providing this angular disposition a wedging action is obtziined when the tabs 28 are in 'serted within the sockets 18 whereby the lower edge of the upholstery unit is quite firmly secured against any undue vibration. The upper edge of the unit is provided with the trimming welt 24* as described above. In addition to acting as a cover for the gap between the upper edge of the unit and the overhanging portion of the outer panel 11 this trimming welt also acts as a cushion elements used to secure the door check 34 and the door handle 35 in place. These last additional securing means, however, are optional and may be omitted without in any manner affecting proper application and securement of the upholstery unit upon the door.

In Fig. 5 I have shown a modification which is preferred when the upholstery unit is to be applied to a sedan door. The outer panel of this door is indicated as while the inner panel thereof is indicated as 41,

The upholstery unit as applied to the surface of this inner panel 41 comprises a flat panel 42 of thin laminated wood or other flexible,

material just as in the case above described.

The lower portion of this flexible panel and the attaching means issimilar to the construction shown in Fig. i. The upper end of the inner panel i1 is provided with an inturned flange 43 upon which is mounted a sill 44 secured thereto by removable bolts 45. The sill 41 i is provided with a portion overhanging the outer surface of the inner panel ll and this overhanging portion is in turn provided with a depending portion 47. When the sill is mounted in position upon the flange 43, a channel 46 is formed, the walls of which include the downturned portion l? of the sill and the upper end of the inner panel l1. The formation of this channel lt; makes unnecessary the provision tabs at the upper'edge of the upholstery panel 42. Tn order to mount the upholstery unit upon the inner surface of the sedan door, the lower tabs are inserted within theirreceiving sockets adjacent to the lower inner edge of the door in a manner similar to that shown in Fig. 3. The upper edge of the upholstery unit is inserted within the channel 46 as is clearly shown in Fig. 5. When the upholstery unit is to be removed or replaced, it is only necessary to remove the sill it thus leavingthe upper end of the unit free and unsecured.

Figs. 6 and 7 show still other modifications whereby the upholstery unit may be applied to a sedan door. In Fig. 6 the sill 48 is shown as made of metal and is mounted upon the inturned flange 43 of the inner panel in a manner similar to that used in mounting the wooden sill 44 of Fig. 5 in place. However, in place of the dependingportion 47 of the Wooden sill for positioning the upholstery unit in place apertures 49 are provided in the lower inturned overhanging portion 50 through which the upper clips or tabs 26 at the upholstery unit project.

In Fig. 7 the sill 51 is shown integral with the inner panel 41 and is provided with an overhanging portion 52 against the lower surface of which the upper edge of the upholstery unit is adapted to abut. At the base of this overhanging portion apertures 53 are provided to receive the clips 26 in a manner already described in connection with the above described modifications.

It will be seen that by my invention an upholstery unit has been devised which obviates the necessity for drilling a great" number of holes in the vehicle body for reception of securing elements. Also due to my construction misalignments between the attaching elements in the upholstery unit and those in the door body are no longer serious, and it is no longer necessary to accurately predetermine the position of the screw holes in the upholstery so as to correspond with the holes previously drilled in the body, door, panel or other structure to which the upholstery is to be applied. Further, my construction permits the use of elements which are totally concealed from view when the upholstery is in place and which retains the upholstery in place in a manner preventing wrinkling thereof and insuring a plain, smooth, neat-appearing surface.

Having set forth the objects of my inven- 711 tion and a structure embodying the principles thereof, 1 wish it to be understood that many changes in the specific details of the structure might readily occur to persons skilled the art and still fall within the spirit and scope of my invention.

What I claim as new and useful is:

1. The combination with a vehicle door body having a plurality of slots arranged therein, of a subtantially flat upholstery '7 frame unit resilient in its entirety and carryng a plurality of progectig tabs or tangs inserted wltnm said slots.

2. in a vehicle door, a body portion having an inner concaved surface, recesses disposed 3 v at opposite sides of said inner surface, a normally fiat resilient panel covered with upholstery, and fixed tabs projecting from opposite edges of the panel and cooperating with said recesses, the distance between the -free ends of said oppositely disposed tabs holstery covering secured thereto, tabs seteken on a line in the plane of the panel being cured to said panel at the upper and lower greater than the straight line distance beedges thereof, the free ends of the tabs being ill tween the oppositely disposed sockets in said inclined with respect to said panel. 5 body portion. In testimony whereof I hereunto afix my 3. In a vehicle door, a detachable upholsignature. story unit therefor comprising a panel, an up-' JOSEPH LEDWINKA'. 

